Especially Suko, despite what his significant size might make you think. They’re at completely different stages of development: Selkie speakses almost perfects English, just has a speech disorders rooting ins the gammars ofs her mother tongue. Suko mostly goes Bababababalalalaba-uppa-ba and has only recently started making somewhat structured short sentences in either language.

While children do have romantic feelings, these two probably do not consider each other potential partners.

While I don’t find it impossible, your comment is a little like seeing a story in which there are a bunch of children and only two of them are Asian (one a toddler, the other 9), and they happen to get along well, and someone says “Oh! Two Asian characters who happen to get along well! They are so cute together that they must be headed for a romantic relationship!”

Without, y’know, the sarcasm.

Not only is it weird to ship people that young (I’m trying not to think of Rule 34 and the recent retirement of Hayao Miyazaki over this sort of thing), not only is it potentially offensive to say that the only two people who share X characteristic (*especially* race/species) are going to get together, but it also speaks to the cultural bias that says platonic friendships are not only rare but actually less desirable than romantic relationships.

And since I love seeing close, even intimate relationships that don’t have a romantic or sexual component, it bugs me whenever someone jumps straight past friendship to romance.

Wow, that’s incredibly offensive that you’d imply I’m racist because I believe two characters that HAPPEN to share the same race are romantically interested in each other. I don’t care whatsoever what races or species they are – their interactions scream potential romantic interest, and I judge SOLELY off of that.

Also, the fact that you would bring up rule 34 is pretty f****d up, if I say so myself. Shipping is not the same thing as pornography. That’s really perverted you’d even suggest something like that.

Finally, this says nothing at all of platonic relationships. I just don’t see one existing between Selkie and Suko – I see a beautiful romantic relationship where they will one day spend the rest of their lives (however long those are) together, and maybe start a family.

I’m not implying that you’re racist, I’m saying that this is how a ship like that sounds. It doesn’t matter how innocent the ship may be in your head, it *sounds like* it’s based entirely on the two characters being from the same group.

Dotcom’s right: The Westermarck effect is probably going to drastically reduce the chances of these two characters getting together, if only because he’s pretty much the only Sarnothi character she knows who’s even close to her age. (Unless of course the Westermarck effect doesn’t occur in Sarnothi to begin with.)

I’m sorry for offensive given; in re-reading my comment it does seem a little worse than I meant it, but that’s kind of the nature of comments on the internet (inflection doesn’t come across so well in pure text).

You’re right that shipping isn’t Rule 34-ing. It’s just that I recently read some comments from Miyazaki about how offended he was by the way people used his (very underage) characters in adult ways — part of the reason he retired — and I think my brain tied that in to people pairing off characters too young for romance in the first place. (Like I said, I *was* trying not to think in that vein. Wasn’t working very well, obviously.)

Back when Dave gave us a “teaser” drawing of the family (and confirmed that the youngster was a boy), I immediately wondered if he was close to Selkie’s age, and a potential romantic interest — not for *current* Selkie, but for *future teen/adult* Selkie.

I’ve always been annoyed that comic authors completely forget that little kids generally start out in the “[opposite sex kids] are *icky* and have *cooties*” phase. “Little Archie” is perhaps one of the worst offenders, where the main characters are apparently written to be identical to their teen versions, only shorter.

Of course she is, but it’s just bizarrely plausible enough to briefly mess with Todd’s head, which is exactly what she was after. Messing with people’s heads is her hobby and I get the sense she doesn’t nearly get as many good opportunities for it as she likes.

You mean Todd? Dave is the writer. I don’t know if he needs to be told. 😉

Yes, I was wondering this, too, though. Chances are, they’ll find out if they haven’t been told already. I can imagine it happens during puberty—just like human children—so that “talk” probably has already happened or will happen in a year or two.

Yes. Many are extinct like thecodonts but some, like platypi (platypuses?) are… is it Oviviparous? Anyway, they lay eggs and suckle their young yet lay eggs and have fur. Go figure. Spiny echidna, too.

Dave, I just have one critique/question. Sai Fen and family are all green skinned and Selkie is lavendar toned. I understand that the Sarnothi likely have a range of skin tones (as humans do) but was the difference in color meant to be this distinctive? I thought I remembered them being closer in tone to Selkie in earlier strips.

Ok, ignore my earlier comment. I just went back and saw that Pohl has been a vibrant green since we first met him. So new question, is the coloring a racial or tribal thing? I see it’s not based on age (like kids start out lavendar and turn greener as they age) since Selkie’s Mom had her coloring and Suko is green like his parents.